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RALEIGH – The balance of the Wake County Board of Education is up for grabs when voters go to the polls Oct. 11. The chairman's seat and the seats of all four Democratic board members are up.

In District 4, Republican Venita Peyton is taking on incumbent Democrat Keith Sutton, who was appointed in 2009 to fill the seat vacated by Rosa Gill. The district includes east and southeast Raleigh.

Peyton, who is a real estate agent and Chamber of Commerce member, says she's taking on Sutton because she wants to see more parent involvement in her district.

"He hasn't really done anything to excite the parents about what the potential is and I see potential because when we look at our future, all of us need all our children to be educated and to grow and to graduate," she said.

Peyton is a stiff opponent of the school system's busing for diversity program and thinks student assignments should focus on proximity. She says she thinks her district, particularly its low income families, has been ignored.

"These are the parents who have been shunned the most,” argued Peyton. “The only reason they've been able to go into these neighborhoods and create little nodes like they have is because these are parents who are lower income, who don't know how to fight for their own children, and so they just take whatever happens."

Peyton says she's also supportive of measures like creating a foundation for Walnut Creek Elementary that could help pay for extracurriculars and getting communities more involved in education to boost student achievement.

Sutton has worked with the NAACP, Urban League and state government.

"I know the community. I know policy. I know how to advocate," he said.

He has supported the system's busing plan but says it isn't the only way to incorporate diversity. Sutton says for student assignments he would like to see a mix of proximity, diversity and student achievement. He also says the country is watching.

"We are a bellwether for what school districts do, what large public urban school districts do in terms of diversity and student achievement and everything else that's important to what we do," Sutton said.

Sutton also wants to focus on recruiting more diverse, qualified teachers and closing the achievement gap.

"I think we need to focus on African-American males, which are at the bottom of that gap, and that we can implement programs such as the single gender academies which have been talked about here recently," he said.

Sutton has been a voice for the school board's minority, while Peyton says she'd likely vote with the majority.

Wake County Board of Education elections are nonpartisan.